Club Candids: Glow Friday at Vagabond Ballroom

Like the old saying goes: The more things change, the more they stay the same. Exemplifying this well-worn cliché axiom perfectly is the Vagabond Ballroom in Scottsdale. Back in Old Town’s old days, this dance shack as known as Anderson’s Fifth Estate and offered dark and heavy music notorious nights…

Numbers On Napkins: Borrachos, Chingasos Y Rucas

  Title: Borrachos, Chingasos Y Rucas   Basics: How about some good ol’ fashioned AZ punk, compliments of local quartet Numbers On Napkins. Lead by the prolific Chase Stain, Borrachos was produced by Joe Queer of, oddly enough, The Queers while being engineered by Landmine Marathon’s Ryan Butler.   That’s a…

Flier of the Week: Snail Quail

Nothing says “good times at the Trunk Space” quite like Pee Wee Herman and Snail Quail.Snail Quail’s singer and guitarist Jonathan Cisneros designed this week’s featured flier. He was shooting for something that would make people smile.”The concept behind the flier was to make it undeniably ‘Snail Quail-esque’ and simple,”…

We Came As Romans @ The Clubhouse

Metal has probably produced more legitimate subgenres than any other branch of rock. Yet, for the most part, these offshoots have remained fairly true to the genre’s roots, especially visually: Grizzled, long-haired dudes in black leather playing brutal music. But then we have metalcore and bands such as We Came…

Social Distortion @ Marquee Theatre

It’s hard to know what to make of Social Distortion’s over-30-year-cling to their signature sound. Take their new single, “Machine Gun Blues,” from their forthcoming album, Hard Times and Nursery Rhymes: The three-minute ’30s gangster parable sounds exactly how you would expect the first single from a new Social Distortion…

The Whisperlights @ The Lost Leaf

The music scene in Phoenix, as much as we don’t like to admit it, isn’t perfect. It’s not that we don’t have enough bands making decent music — but one thing that has, in my opinion, always hampered some bands in Phoenix is that their records seem to lack a…

Concrete Blonde @ The Compound Grill

Someone in Concrete Blonde’s licensing camp really dropped the ball. 2010 saw the release of the 20th-anniversary edition of their seminal 1990 album, Bloodletting, described by the kind folks at Amazon as “a gothic tapestry of danger, vampires, alcoholism, and passion,” but I didn’t hear a single one of their…

Rainbow Brite @ Stratus

Stuart Langelaan (a.k.a. Lange) commands some serious respect in the DJ world, and rightly so. Some of the 36-year-old British trance trickster’s accomplishments include ranking highly on the UK sales charts several times over the past decade (and earning an appearance on BBC’s Top of the Pops as a result),…

Club Candids at The Firehouse

When the dreaded last call inevitably strikes in Scottsdale, the Old Town party crowd is confronted with a few of choices:A. Schlep on home and call it a night. B. Get some greasy-ass grub at Joe’s NY Pizza or elsewhere C. Pass out on the sidewalk D. Head to an…

Flier of the Week: Bad Reputation

Wanna see a badass show? Well you got it.In fact, the upcoming Monsters of Mock gig will be jam packed with 80s tribute band greatness.Bad Reputation, a local Joan Jett Tribute Band, is headlining. Joining Bad Reputation are the Ultimate Van Halen Tribute and 33.Erin Morley, Bad Reputation’s drummer, is…

Pawl: Guest House

Title: Guest HouseBasics: Pawl may refer to:•A common component of a ratchet •A part of the adjustable height locking mechanism of an extension ladder•A part of a table saw splitter, a safety mechanism designed to prevent kickback•Jazzed up cinematic pop from a fellow named Paul Krauss and his friends…

Greeley Estates @ Marquee Theatre

Last year was a big one for Greeley Estates, the best-known post-hardcore act to come out of our state. Almost exactly a year ago, the Greeley Estates released No Rain, No Rainbow, the band’s fifth album in six years. They charted on the Billboard Top 200, changed guitarists, and toured…

El Ten Eleven @ The Rhythm Room

You’ve heard of post-punk, post-hardcore, post-grunge, and, perhaps, postpartum industrial pop-folk. But are you familiar with the rock subgenre known, simply and asininely, as “post-rock”? The term has been applied to El Ten Eleven, the Los Angeles-based instrumental two-piece whose atmospheric, non-chorus-based sound murals generally unfold within the boundaries drawn…

Bitter End @ The Underground

There are not many things more morbid than a band called Bitter End releasing an album called Guilty As Charged. If the first mental pictures you get are of death row, then you’re not far off. Lyrics have always played an important role in punk rock, and this hardcore Texas-bred/New…

Purple Reign @ Talking Stick Resort

If you missed these exquisite Prince and the Revolution impersonators when they swung through town a year ago, well, here’s your chance to party like it’s 2010. Led by singer-guitarist/Prince doppleganger Jason Tenner, the Reign has shot to the top of America’s tribute-band food chain, scoring a gig on Late…

Eli Escobar @ Bar Smith

New York-born DJ/producer Eli Escobar probably has developed a serious case of burning ears by now, considering how many folks have praised the electro-house hustler’s kinetically charged remixes online during the past few years. Music bloggers across the globe have gushed about the glitchy and aurally enticing soundscapes he creates,…

Club Candids: New Year’s Eve at The Rogue Bar

While the rest of Scottsdale were welcoming the dawn of 2011 with block parties, bizarre bonanzas, and beer-soaked bashes, the folks over at the Rogue were spending their New Year’s Eve in a far more subdued fashion. That’s not to say the party wasn’t popping at the south Scottsdale dive,…

Flier of the Week: Red Light Mind

In the spirit of the new year, the New Times is feeling festive, so we’re featuring two fliers this week! Also, all of this week’s coolest fliers are coming from shows at the Rogue Bar.Personally, this flier caught my eye because it reminded me of the Red Hot Chili Peppers’…

Flier of the Week: The Sweet Repose

Nothing says eye-catching, understated awesomeness like this flier does.Tommy Miller, frontman of the Sweet Repose, designed the flier, which he actually created with PowerPoint in order to keep the design simple.”I wanted to spell the band’s name in an upside down human pyramid,” Tommy said. “It ended up looking like…

Alter Bridge @ Marquee Theatre

Alter Bridge is essentially Creed without Scott Stapp, and if that doesn’t warrant use of the phrase “addition by subtraction,” nothing does. Following Creed’s breakup in 2003, guitarist Mark Tremonti and drummer Scott Phillips recruited onetime Creed bassist Bryan Marshall (who left the band in 2000) and vocalist Myles Kennedy…